NEED TO CATCH up? TheJournal.ie brings you a round-up of today’s news.

IRELAND

The last print edition of The Times Ireland on newsstands today. Eamonn Farrell Eamonn Farrell

• Gardaí in West Cork are investigating the death of a retired member of the force, whose body was found in the early hours of this morning near his home in Glandore.
• Minister Paschal Donohoe expressed concerns about the spiraling cost of the National Broadband Plan (NBP) a day before the Government received the final tender for the project.
• An Irishman who was fatally stabbed at a pub in the Costa del Sol in Spain yesterday has been named as 53 year-old John Pender.
• An Irish Civil War era grenade was discovered – and safely detonated – near a house in Clontarf in Dublin. 
• An Bord Pleanála has received an application for the construction of 469 build-to-rent homes on one of the most valuable vacant sites in the State. 
• The PSNI launched a murder investigation after a man’s body was discovered at a house in Lisburn last night.
• Dublin City Council has confirmed the days that College Green in the city centre will be traffic-free.

THE WORLD

Conservative party leadership candidate Boris Johnson during the first party hustings. PA Wire / PA Images PA Wire / PA Images / PA Images

#UK: Prime Ministerial contender Boris Johnson has refused to address why police were called to his London home after a neighbour reported an altercation yesterday morning.

#HEAT WAVE: Europe is set to feel the heat as a sizzling heatwave is expected to bring temperatures as high as 40 degrees Celsius to parts of the continent next week.

#INDIA: A total of 113 children have died from a mysterious brain fever potentially linked to lychees in India’s poorest Bihar state.

PARTING SHOT

The BBC reports that “many of those approached smelled a rat and rang off”. 

Here to finish off your day is the bizarre tale of an individual – or individuals – who managed to con €80 million from wealthy victims after impersonating France’s defence minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian by wearing a silicon likeness of Le Drian.

The fake French minister in a silicon mask who stole millions https://t.co/G1ke6EnIjk

— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) June 19, 2019

The case is now under judicial investigation in France. Suspicions centre on a convicted French-Israeli con-artist called Gilbert Chikli.

He is currently in jail in Paris following extradition from Ukraine and faces charges of organised fraud and usurpation of identity.